


Bits of Kyber

by jeeno2



Series: Rebelcaptain Stories [15]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Childbirth, F/M, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Oral Sex, Reunions, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2018-09-23 13:44:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 6,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeeno2/pseuds/jeeno2
Summary: A collection of short rebelcaptain ficlets.  Ratings range from G to very, very adult.





	1. Smile (rated T)

**Author's Note:**

> Over the past few weeks I've written a number of little rebelcaptain prompt ficlets on tumblr that are just too short to justify posting here as individual stories. But I also don't want them to get lost in the tumblr void -- and so here we are. :)
> 
> The ficlets range in rating from G to very, very M. Each ficlet's rating is included in the title.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the following prompt: "smile."

When K-2 came by Cassian’s quarters that evening for their nightly debriefing he realized, immediately, that there was something very seriously wrong with his old friend.

Jyn Erso, that infuriating woman, was standing in the doorway to his quarters.  Her back was to K-2 and she wore nothing but shorts, a thin cotton t-shirt – and Cassian’s parka.  

And did Cassian throw her out of his room as K-2 expected he might? Or demand, at once, that she return his property?  

No.  He did neither of these things. Instead, Cassian only smiled at Jyn Erso, like he’d never seen anything so pleasing in his life, and invited her into his room before shutting the door behind her.

Cassian never smiled, as a general rule. Nor did he typically forgive the pilfering of his possessions.  Clearly the stress of the war was getting to him more than K-2 realized.

He would definitely need to run a full diagnostic on him first thing in the morning.


	2. Hush (E)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence tumblr prompt: "hope." Not sure why my mind went down this dirty path with that prompt but here we are.

Cassian shoves his fist in his mouth to keep from crying out as the first press of Jyn’s tongue to his flesh sends shock waves of sensation rocketing through him.

Normally, he likes to make noise when they're together. Jyn’s usually the quiet one, biting her bottom lip as she rides him to hold back her pleasured moans.

But they just snuck out of a group tactics meeting to do this, and so they have to stay as quiet as they can.  The walls at Echo Base are paper thin and Mon Mothma, and dozens of others, are just on the other side of this one.  It wouldn’t do at all for everybody to hear him moaning while Jyn licks him senseless.

“God,” he grits out as Jyn – her shirt hiked all the way up, her breasts pressed firmly against his thighs – slowly runs her tongue up one side of him and down the other. Her hand works his length in tandem with her mouth, twisting as she licks and nips and sucks.

He can feel her writhing in pleasure against him even as she pleasures him.

They’ll have to make a reappearance at the meeting eventually. But right now, Jyn’s looking up at him through her eyelashes as her cheeks hollow out, and damnit, the Rebellion will just have to wait.


	3. Holding Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for this week's prompt at rebelcaptainprompts: "A hand to hold."

When Jyn finally moves her things into his quarters, after months of indecision on both their parts, it’s not the big changes that are hardest to get used to.

The reduced closet space; the rushed mornings, now that there are two of them needing the one refresher: those are all things Cassian anticipated when she agreed to give living together a try. 

It’s the smaller things – the differences he was not expecting – that are what give Cassian pause now that she’s here.

The way her scent lingers on his pillow even after she’s left for the day. Those soft, unmistakably  _Jyn_ footfalls that give away her presence in the room every time, even when his back is to her and he’s bent over the day’s reports. 

The gentle press of her hand against his as they lie together in their bed at night, waiting for sleep to take them.  

But more than anything, it’s just how quickly it’s all become natural to him, this strange new arrangement of theirs.  How dependent he’s become on this quiet, intimate, daily contact with her, and how desperately he misses it -- and her -- when she’s away from him for any length of time.

When he first asked Jyn to move in with him Cassian assumed he’d known what a life spent with her would be like.  But as she slides her palm against his and rests her head on his chest, he realizes, with a smile, that Jyn Erso will never stop surprising him.


	4. Something to Call Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short baby!ficlet written for rebelcaptainprompts' prompt on tumblr: "Stardust."

Cassian can see, even from ten feet away, that their daughter is her mother’s spitting image: all brown hair and bright eyes and an expression so _outraged_ it’s all he can do not to fall to the floor in helpless gratitude.

He gathers his courage, and tries to tamp down the horrible guilt he feels over being on a mission half a system away while all this was happening.  

“Jyn. Is everything…?” He trails off.  Takes a deep breath. “The medic said everything went well, but…?”

At the sound of his voice Jyn looks up from their child.

She meets his eyes.

And she gives him a tired, but unmistakably happy smile.

* * *

 

 _I won’t believe you’re all right until I hear it from you_ , his eyes plead.

Before answering his unspoken question Jyn looks down at the infant cradled in her arms. Their daughter’s eyes are open for the first time all morning, and in the length of time it takes a single heart to beat two times Jyn shares a look with her that’s so intimate it feels, for just a moment, like the two of them are co-conspirators to a secret plot only they are meant to understand. 

Jyn’s heart clenches in her chest at the unexpected swell of emotion that rises up in her. And then, their baby shuts her eyes again on a sleepy yawn, and the moment passes.

She looks back to Cassian, who’s still standing in the doorway to her room in the med bay, wringing his hands together and looking petrified.  

“Everything’s fine,” she assures him.  She manages another tired smile.  “We’re both fine.”  

Cassian’s face breaks into a grin wider than any she’s ever seen.  He breathes a sigh of relief.  “Good,” he says.  He takes a tentative step towards her bed, and then another.  “Good.  That’s… that’s so good, Jyn.”

“C’mere,” she says, beckoning him to join his new family.

The last thing she’s aware of before drifting off again is Cassian, his arm around her warm and steady and sure.

* * *

 

They name her Lyra, for Jyn’s mother.

“But she needs a nickname, don’t you think?” Cassian says the next time she wakes.  “Something else we can call her while she’s small.   _Lyra_.  It’s beautiful, yes; but it’s an awful lot of name for such a tiny person.”

Cassian’s words conjure up unexpected flashes of memory.  Her own father, throwing her up in the air and then catching her as she fell back down, both of them laughing in the too-few years they had together before everything was taken away.

 _My stardust._  

“I’m sure something will come to us,” Jyn says.  She turns from him, hiding her eyes.  He was so terrified, earlier.  He doesn’t need to see her silent tears.  “We have a lifetime to get to know her.”

Cassian’s hold on her tightens.  Because of course she can’t know that for sure.  He presses a gentle kiss to her temple.  She closes her eyes, and leans into his touch.

“You’re right, Jyn.  We do.”  His words are gentle but his tone is fierce.  Determined.  He leans his head against hers.  He kisses her forehead, and it feels like nothing so much as a promise.  “A lifetime.”

For now, she decides to believe it could be possible.


	5. Anything She Wants (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've had a plot bunny for Cassian-the-Rebellion-soldier and Jyn-the-Rebellion-princess for ages now that I’ll likely never get around to fully fleshing out. Here’s a snippet from that world, though, written for @rebelcaptainprompts‘ “Temptation.”

Cassian’s head and his heart were full of honor when he arrived at Coruscant three months ago, fresh from the battlefield and greener than summer grass.

But there is no room for honor in this hidden room, Jyn’s hands on his chest, her mouth hot, urgent, and moving against his shoulder.

They can’t make a sound.  This much he knows from the whispered half-warnings Bodhi gives him when he returns from Jyn’s room every morning.  And he knows it from the princess herself, though she never actually says it, from the way she clamps her hands over his mouth to muffle his desperate cries. 

Everyone else would assume the worst if they knew.  They’d figure he’d forced himself upon her, upon their much beloved symbol of the Rebellion, made her spread his legs for him while he thrust into her again and again, made her his.  

Her family would have him dishonorably discharged.  Or worse.

That’s not how it happened, of course.  No – the Princess came to _him_ that first time, came right into his quarters with her nightdress hanging partly open, her beautiful body bared to his eyes.  She’d dropped the nightdress to the floor right in front of him, and she crossed the room in two long strides until they were breathing the same air. 

Her hands found him straining for her touch already, and she gripped him there, gently, but with inexorable purpose.  She moved her hand -- and with that, the last remaining shreds of Cassian Andor’s honor were left in tatters.

“Please,” she begs him now, her cheeks flushed, the way they are when she’s close.  “I need…”

He knows what she needs.  Knows it like he knows his own name.  He pins her arms up over her head and fucks her relentlessly, pounding into her again and again until she’s the one crying out, sobbing his name, biting his neck and writhing beneath him in ecstasy.

It’s forbidden, all of this temptation. He knows that.  But as she shatters underneath him, all around him, he also knows he will never be able to refuse Jyn Erso anything she wants.


	6. It's You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a "send me a sentence and I'll write you the next five" prompt on tumblr. Moonprincess92nz's prompt was: "It had been three months since they'd seen each other."

“It’s you,” Jyn says, stunned, all the breath in her body leaving her at once when she sees him there, leaning so casually against the door to her quarters it would almost be funny if his presence weren’t so completely unexpected. 

Cassian looks exhausted; like he’s lost ten pounds he didn’t have to spare in the months since she last saw him.  His eyes are hooded, haunted, with dark circles ringing them, and he holds his right arm tightly to his body inside a Rebellion-grade sling that looks new.  

“Yeah; it’s me,” he agrees, his voice raw, hoarse – with exhaustion, or pain, or emotion; or perhaps some combination of the three – as he holds her gaze.

Now that he’s here, in the flesh, _at last_ , she wants to go to him – to finally shove them both off this knife’s edge they’ve been balancing on since the beginning, and to show him how desperately she missed and mourned him while he was presumed dead.

But Cassian beats her to it, boldly placing one foot in front of the other until he is by her side. He reaches up with his good hand and then stops, hand frozen in mid-air just a few inches from her face.

He bites his lip and looks into her eyes, asking permission.  

She nods, wordlessly granting it, and welcomes him home.


	7. Conspirators

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a "send me the first sentence of a fic and I'll write the next five" prompt from jynersq: "Cassian, look at me."

At the sound of Jyn’s voice, fourteen-year-old Cassian Andor sighs, and then slowly, reluctantly turns away from the orphanage wall he’s been staring at for the past forty-five minutes to face her.

He notices immediately that Jyn’s got her hair in two short braids today – because he always notices everything about Jyn, the girl who’s been his only real friend since he got here.  

Jyn gives him a quiet, knowing smile just before she takes his hands in hers.

“I’ve figured out how to make that K-2 unit work,” she tells him, her voice a quiet, conspiratorial whisper so they won’t be overheard by the orphanage staff. She strokes the backs of his hands with her thumbs; an odd little shiver runs down his spine. “But we’ll need those tools you found; can you…?”

“I can sneak out and get them tonight,” he murmurs quietly, her smile pulling a matching one from him before he’s realized it’s happened; and he’s reeling, because with this, the two of them might be of use to the Rebellion at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The minute my work situation from hell resolves I plan to expand this snippet into a proper fic.


	8. Can I Kiss You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a "send me a sentence and I'll write you five more" prompt: "Can I kiss you now?"

The words are out of Cassian’s mouth before he even realizes he’s said them.

But they’re out there now, hanging heavy in the air between them; and although Cassian’s own brain has completely short-circuited, Jyn’s wide eyes and shocked expression imply she knows exactly what he just said.

This mission had been incredibly dangerous from the start; now that it’s over, they’re running on little more than adrenaline and giddy relief over being alive.  Nonetheless, when seconds tick by and still Jyn says nothing, Cassian starts to panic – because of all the different ways he’s imagined this scenario might go, should he be lucky enough to live to see it, never once has he thought he’d just _blurt out the words_ right after yet another too-close brush with death. 

“Jyn, look,” Cassian begins, licking his lips nervously, preparing to ask her to just forget the whole thing – 

– but she cuts him off, winding her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his, making him forget everything he was about to say.


	9. Knitting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a tumblr prompt from mosylu: "From one knitter to another, a prompt: Baze is trying to teach Jyn how to knit. It's going about like you'd expect."

It takes a lot of hemming and hawing, and more than a few false starts, before Jyn is able to admit what she’s come here to talk to Baze about.

When she does finally get the words out, he just stands there in the doorway to his quarters, blinking at her with a confused expression.

Maybe he didn’t understand her question.  

She takes a deep breath and decides to try again.

“Look,” she says, fidgeting nervously under his gaze. “I know you and Chirrut are really busy.  But I was just wondering if –”

At the sound of his name, Chirrut – who until this moment Jyn hadn’t realized was home – pops his head out from around Baze’s large form and turns his sightless eyes to her.

“You want Baze to teach you how to _what?”_ Jyn can’t remember the last time Chirrut sounded this incredulous.  Or looked so amused.

She closes her eyes and grits her teeth.  She can do this.  “How to knit,” she says again, hating how shaky her voice sounds to her own ears.  “So I can… you know.”  She swallows.  “So I can make something warm for Cassian.”

“Ah,” Chirrut says knowingly.  As though that explains everything.

Perhaps it does.  

Everyone at Echo Base knows how miserable and cold Cassian is here.  His discomfort is obvious to everyone, though of course he never complains.  He wears that bulky parka of his wherever he goes, but it’s never enough to keep him from shivering his way through debriefings.  And Jyn never fails to notice how furiously he rubs his hands together every morning over breakfast to warm them up.

Jyn also doesn’t fail to notice how the corner of Baze’s mouth twitches a little at her explanation for why she’s here.  One of his most obvious tells for when he’s trying his best not to laugh.

“I don’t know if I _can_ teach you,” Baze says, very slowly, clearly trying to keep his amusement out of his voice.  But his eyes are twinkling now, giving him away.  “I don’t know if you have the right sort of… temperament for it.”  He pauses, and cocks his head to one side as if considering her.  “But for Cassian?  Heh.  Well, why not.  I suppose anything’s possible.” 

He steps aside and motions for her to enter his room.  Jyn ducks her head gratefully as she follows him inside.

* * *

The scarf – such as it is – is a disaster.

It’s far too short, for one thing.  As she was casting off her stitches last night Baze warned her she doing it too early; that she needed at least another ten inches of length before what she was making could even be functional.  By then, though, Jyn was sick to death of working on the thing.  And she was realizing more and more with every stitch she dropped that really, this had been a bad idea from the beginning.

When she gives the finished product to Cassian after breakfast it’s more holes from dropped stitches and clumsily-fixed mistakes than it is actual fabric.  

To her surprise, Cassian likes it anyway.  

“You _made_ this?  For me?”  His eyes are bright as he examines it, twinkling with something that looks as close to actual joy as anything Jyn has ever seen from him.  He carefully lifts the multi-colored thing out of its small cardboard box as though it were something breakable and precious, rather than the most pathetic attempt at needlework this star system has ever seen.

“I did,” Jyn admits, suddenly self-conscious.  She looks down at her fingernails.  “You’re always cold on Hoth, and there isn’t really any extra winter gear to go around, so I just thought…”

As she explains her reasoning, Cassian wordlessly tucks the scarf inside his parka, wrapping it carefully around his neck as best he can.  He turns to her when he’s finished, the barest hint of a smile teasing at the corners of his lips.

“Thank you, Jyn,” he says, his voice soft; and the tender look he gives her is full of so much warmth she wonders if she’ll ever be cold again.


	10. Say the words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence-fic meme, in response to this prompt from Katsumi/Leralynne: "It's not something he says often."

She doesn’t say it much herself.  They’re both people of action – far more comfortable _doing_  than telling, and much more at ease with a blaster in their hands than with pretty words of affection for the people they love, even after all this time spent fighting side by side.

So when he says it tonight – his half-packed duffel spread out on their bunk, his eyes trained on the floor as she stares at his face – it jars her; propels her out of the bitter funk she’s been in ever since he told her he was leaving again in the morning and didn’t know how long this mission would last.  

 _He must be worried_ , Jyn thinks, to say this to her now; and now she’s worried, too.  She reaches up and gently rests her palm against the side of his face, revelling in the rough rasp of his beard against her skin as he leans into her touch.

“I love you, too,” she murmurs, and tries to take comfort in his answering smile.


	11. Done this before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the five sentence fic meme. First sentence providedwas: "It wasn't like she'd never done this before."

_It wasn't like she'd never done this before._

Because technically, she had.  

Until now, though, she’d only ever used kisses as a tool; as a means to an end when she was in pursuit something else entirely, or had a different, bigger goal in mind.

“ _Oh_ ,” Jyn said breathlessly as Cassian’s hands gripped her waist, and as he spun her, pressing her up against the door.  He dropped hungry, open-mouthed kisses along her jaw and down her neck, driving every rational thought from her head while she clung to him.

Jyn thought she’d known what she was doing when she suggested he come home with her tonight; but as his lips found hers at last, she realized, with a shudder, that this was the beginning of something entirely new.


	12. Surprise Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence fic prompt on tumblr: "Cassian only gapes when Jyn kisses him." I'm slowly making my way back to writing proper fic again, and hope to start posting it again soon. xx

_Cassian only gapes when Jyn kisses him._

* * *

 

When she says nothing – merely glares at him, one eyebrow raised meaningfully – he quickly returns himself, remembering where they are and what this is all about.

 _Right_ , he thinks, nodding slowly, before diving in for more, pressing her back up against the wall of the cantina in a way he hopes looks convincing to the Imperial spies scattered about the dark room.  He shifts slightly, grabbing one of her thighs and hitching it up and over his hip, leaning forward to trail lingering, hungry kisses down the delicate column of her throat.

When he gives Jyn’s backside a tentative squeeze she moans so loudly against his ear she’s got _him_  half-convinced this act they’re putting on as part of their undercover mission isn’t just for show.  Cassian has to shake his head to clear it, to force himself to calm down before his body reacts to what they’re doing and tells her, more clearly than his words ever could, how much he wishes all this were real. 


	13. Zip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence-fic prompt on tumblr: “I know I asked you to zip me up, but i think you’ll have to help me out, too.”

_I know I asked you to zip me up, but i think you’ll have to help me out, too.”_

At Jyn’s terse words Cassian swallows thickly, his hands balled up into tight fists at his sides – and before he can think of anything to say in response to her request she turns on her heels so that her back is to him.

“It’s even harder to get off now that it’s all wet,” she adds by way of explanation.  

“Um,” Cassian says, like an idiot, and he closes his eyes, cringing inwardly at how awkward this all is.

It’s not that he’s not sympathetic to Jyn’s situation, because he _is;_ he can’t even imagine having to dance all night in this impossibly tight, form-fitting dress, only to be forced to end the evening by running for their lives through the worst downpour they’ve seen since Eadu.  But Cassian’s self-preservation instinct is strong, and he knows that while the zipper holding her little dress together may appear a small thing, it’s also the only thing standing between him and utter destruction.

He swallows again, tries to keep his mind from wandering away from the task at hand to the soft, creamy skin underneath her sodden dress, and takes a deep breath through his nose to calm his nerves.  

He reaches out with one hand to grab the zipper and, with deliberate purpose, he tugs it down.


	14. Pretend Boyfriend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence fic prompt on tumblr: "I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend for the next 15 minutes."

_I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend for the next 15 minutes._

The words Jyn whispered urgently into his ear over three hours ago run through Cassian’s head in an endless loop now.

Their little act’s worked, he thinks.  With how close he and Jyn have been standing to one another all night – with how much he’s been touching her, and her him – no one at this Imperial ball could possibly guess they’re anything but the tipsy lovers they’ve been pretending to be.

But what started out hours ago as a plea for _fifteen minutes_  rapidly devolved into an extended evening of play-acting; and now Jyn – in a red gown so deliciously form-fitting men and women from all corners of the room have had their eyes on her body all evening – still clings to his arm in a way that’s driving him mad with frustrated desire, running the pads of her fingertips along the back of his free hand as she surveys the room.

“I think it worked,” Jyn says eventually, when at last the party’s over, dropping his arm with something that Cassian almost thinks might be reluctance.  She looks up at him from underneath heavy lashes and he wonders, for one mad instant, what she might do if he proposed they make the subterfuge real.


	15. Reunion cuddle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written in response to one of the cuddle prompts from tumblr: "Reunion cuddle."

The alarm on Cassian’s comm goes off without warning, shrill and piercing.

With an irritated groan Jyn reaches down, grabs the stupid thing off his wrist, and flings it against the farthest wall.

Cassian pulls back from her, surprise and amusement all over his face.

“What did you do that for?” he asks, fighting a smile.

Jyn rolls her eyes. “You know why.”

He does, of course. 

He’d been away for more than three weeks this time, on a mission to the far side of the outer rim that was supposed to only last a few days. Half the Rebellion had given him up for dead by the time he managed to find his way back here, bedraggled and exhausted and desperate to see Jyn.

“You just got back,” Jyn says fiercely, her arms tightening around him as she speaks. She leans closer and presses gentle, needy kisses up the long column of his throat, nipping along his jaw until she finally reaches his lips again. “I don’t want to share you with the Rebellion just yet.”

He closes the short distance between them and gives her an affectionate kiss on the cheek. “I know,” he says regretfully. “I do. But Draven is going to kill me if I don’t answer that call.”

She narrows her eyes. “ _I’m_  going to kill you if you do.”

In the end, Cassian agrees Draven is just going to have to wait.


	16. Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five sentence ficlet prompt from anidlebrain: "I never thought YOU of all people would say that."

_“I never thought YOU of all people would say that.”_

Cassian blinks at Jyn's response to his confession, and absently tugs at one corner of his bedsheets as he tries to process it.

“Um,” he says, feeling his face grow hot in the dim light of his room.  He licks his lips nervously, because that is  _not_ what he imagined she might say when he rehearsed this in his room these past few weeks.  

“I’m…. sorry,” he eventually says, deciding an apology is the right approach; “I shouldn’t have said –”

But the rest of his words are cut off by Jyn’s mouth, as she presses “I love you, too,” against his lips; and he smiles.


	17. I can tell your mood by which jacket you're wearing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five sentence fic prompt on tumblr.

_“I can tell your mood by which jacket you’re wearing.”_

Cassian blinks up at Jyn, his mug of caf halfway to his lips, utterly perplexed by her statement.

“What are you talking about?” he asks.

She gives him a small, sly smile, and brushes a stray piece of lint off the shoulder of his leather jacket before continuing. “Your khaki jacket means you want to cut with the bullshit and get down to brass tacks, and your leather jacket” – she brushes off his other shoulder, meaningfully – “means you feel like what you’re doing, or what you’re about to do, is morally…. questionable.”

Cassian raises an eyebrow at her and thinks back on the unpleasant assignment Mothma just gave him. He tries (mostly unsuccessfully) to tamp down the embarrassed blush he can feel beginning to creep up the back of his neck.

“Well,” he says, trying to get some semblance of the upper hand here. “When I came to your quarters last night I wasn’t wearing a jacket at all,” he points out. “What did  _that_  tell you?”

She leans closer to him from across the mess hall table until her lips are just a hairsbreadth away from his.

“That you didn’t want to waste time with extra layers,” she murmurs, with a knowing smirk that could bring him to his knees.


	18. All right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for a five-sentence-fic prompt from vaultfox: "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

“ _Are you sure you’ll be alright?”_

 

Cassian’s eyes were steady, kind – but the corners of his lips twitched up into a small smile after he asked the question, belying his otherwise serious expression.

Jyn’s eyes narrowed; he was enjoying this far too much.

“Of course I’m sure,” she said, sniffing, looking away from him and glaring down at her injured foot, propped up on a stack of pillows sent over from MedBay for this purpose. “It’s a fractured ankle, Cassian, not a blaster wound.”

“Oh, I’m not worried about your foot,” he said, his smile growing. “It’s the walls of this room that concern me. You’re not so great about keeping your fists to yourself when you get bored.”

She looked up at him again to find his eyes twinkling in amusement, a broad smile on his face. Irritated, Jyn clenched her fist against her thigh before she’d realized she’d done it – and the joyful, happy sound of Cassian’s laughter was almost enough to make Jyn forget how pissed she was to be on medical leave the next two weeks.


	19. Always Warm

Dawn breaks cold on Fest, and with it comes a damp, inescapable sort of chill that seems to seep all the way down to Jyn’s bones no matter how many thick layers she puts on in the morning, or how long she stands by their fire at night.

But here, in the soft bed she shares with Cassian, it is always warm.

“Mm,” he mumbles against her collarbone when she moves to get up. He tightens his hold on her, and gently eases her back down to the mattress. “Where are you going?”

She turns in his arms so that she’s facing him. She blinks, trying to see. It’s still very dark. The earliest rays of sunlight are only just beginning to filter in through the thin slats covering their windows. But by now Jyn knows every contour of his face by heart, and has memorized the expansive network of fine scars covering his chest with her fingertips, lips, and tongue.

Even without the light she can see him.

“The sun’s rising.” It’s the only answer she gives him. He knows as well as she does that she cannot sleep once dawn arrives. For Jyn Erso, old habits die very hard. 

He nods against the top of her head, understanding. This is a conversation they have had nearly every morning since the war ended and everything else began. “You need to work on that, Jyn,” he says, gently, his voice still thick with sleep. “There’s nowhere you have to be right now.”

With that, he pulls her even closer. She can feel the warm, comforting heat of him through the thin cotton fabric of his sleeping clothes. The feel of his warm, strong arms around her lulls her, soothes her, just as it always does.

Jyn closes her eyes, allows herself to surrender to it. 

“Okay,” she whispers in the dark. 

 _I’ll try,_  she doesn’t say.

Jyn doesn’t know what a life spent standing still will be like. Even now, six months after the war.

But for Cassian – her anchor through it all; and a man who, she suspects, is just as scared as she is  – she will try.


	20. You don't have to do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written ages ago for a five-sentence fic prompt on tumblr: "You don't have to do that."

_"You don't have to do that."_

Cassian’s voice sounds nervous, pained, but Jyn ignores his protests, focusing intently on her work and making certain all the blood from his wounds is wiped clean.  

“Medbay did a terrible job with these stitches,” she mutters as she rinses her soft cloth in the washbasin beside her. “They’re sloppy and uneven; you’ll probably scar.”

Cassian chuckles at that, small puffs of air against the skin of her throat – “like I care about more scars, Jyn” – and then tenses as she deftly undoes the buttons of his shirt.  

His eyes are soft and unfocused as she works over his shoulder, across his chest, with her damp cloth, and Jyn marvels at how warm Hoth is now with him here.


	21. Snowball fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from another, much smaller drabble collection that I've decided to take down and combine with this one for purposes of organization. :)

“Look out!”

Jyn looks up reflexively at K-2’s shrill warning, her heart hammering in her ears.

But it’s too late. By the time Jyn notices Cassian, crouched less than ten feet away behind a pile of artillery shells, his hand cocked over his head like he’s about to lob a live grenade, she’s already got a face full of the slushy snowball he’s apparently been preparing for her while her attention was fixed firmly on the Imperial snipers over the horizon.

“What the –  _what_  –?” she splutters, eyes squeezed tightly shut, freezing cold water mixed with flecks of icy slush dribbling down her cheeks and chin.

She is going to kill that man where he stands.

She cracks open one eye and sees Cassian, still crouched behind the artillery pile, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

“I could kill you for this!” Jyn shouts, furious. Because, yes: she  _is_  furious. And no, she is  _not_  tempted to start laughing, too. Because stealing a moment to play in the snow like children while they’re supposed to be on patrol and they’re stuck on the coldest planet in the entire galaxy is absolutely  _not_  one of the funniest, most light-hearted things she’s experienced in what feels like several lifetimes.

This is totally unlike Cassian. He’s usually as serious as the dark plague. What’s come over him?

She’s about to demand an explanation, but just then Cassian sobers a little and walks towards her, hands in pockets. It disarms her enough to quiet her tongue.  

“I know you could kill me, Jyn.” He smiles at her again, warmly. It reaches his eyes, crinkling them at the edges. He reaches up, and brushes off a bit of the snow still sticking to Jyn’s coat with the palm of his hand. “But I also know you won’t.”

He leaves his hand on her shoulder for a very long moment. Despite the frigid night air Jyn can feel the heat of his touch through her many layers, all the way down to her skin.

She swallows, her irritation with him mostly and inexplicably gone, replaced with such an unexpected surge of affection for this frustrating man it nearly takes her breath away.

She meets his gaze. “You’re right. I won’t kill you,” she admits. She cocks an eyebrow. “But I  _will_  get revenge.”

His smile grows. “You’ll have to catch me first,” he challenges. 

* * *

 

In the end, she does catch him.

He finds he doesn’t mind.


	22. Victory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from a mini-drabble collection I recently decided to consolidate with this one. Originally posted in response to a tumblr prompt.

“They did it!” a voice Jyn does not recognize cries out from the hall.

There is a chorus of happy shouts and cheers that follows, so loud Jyn half-wonders if the entire Rebellion isn't right outside Cassian's room in the med bay, celebrating.

But Jyn pays them little mind.

Her full attention is focused, instead, on Cassian. His dark eyes – open at last – follow her every small movement. And his hand, finally free of the tubes and wires that kept him alive for so long, clutches hers, stroking small circles on the back of it with his thumb. 

Right now, there is no Death Star, no Rebellion. There is only him.

“You’re awake,” she murmurs. 

He’d still been unconscious just two hours ago; had been unconscious ever since they were rescued together from the brink of death on Scarif.  As much as Jyn refused to admit it to any of the orderlies who tried, and failed, to coax her away from his bedside these past few weeks – to encourage her to get some rest so she could recover from her own serious injuries – she had, if she was being honest, nearly given up hope Cassian was ever going to wake up.

But against all odds, he came back.

 _He came back to_ me, she thinks fiercely, then shoves the thought aside.

She watches him watch her, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “I’m awake.” His voice sounds hoarse, nearly broken from more than two weeks of disuse. Jyn isn’t sure she’s ever heard a more beautiful sound. His smile grows. “Guess it’ll take more than a Death Star to end me.”

She smiles back at him, unable to help it.

“The Death Star has been destroyed!” shouts another voice from the hallway, as though the speaker had heard Cassian’s quip and felt it merited a response. “Skywalker  _did it!_ ”

The crowd gives another loud cheer. Their excitement is a palpable thing -- something Jyn thinks she could almost reach out and touch -- even through the giddy, tentative fog of joy she feels here in this small, private room.   

Cassian squeezes her hand, the gentle pressure feeling like nothing so much as a promise.

“Skywalker did it,” he repeats quietly. His eyes are reverent.  Fierce.

Jyn nods. She swallows down the lump in her throat. “He did.”

Cassian beams at her. “ _We_  did it, Jyn,” he whispers, correcting her. “We  _did it_.”

* * *

 

They sit together in silence for what might be hours, Jyn's hand still in his hand, her eyes looking and touching him everywhere her hands dare not roam. Her heart is a dull roar in her ears as the Rebellion continues its celebration right outside their door.

She knows she should probably go fetch a doctor to come check on Cassian. But she can't bear the thought of leaving him.

Besides, she reasons: all the doctors are likely celebrating, too. 

"I'm not in pain," Cassian assures her, as though he can read her unspoken thoughts. "I promise."

She takes him at his word, and decides a doctor can wait.


	23. Fever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a repost from a mini-drabble collection I recently decided to consolidate with this larger one. Originally posted in response to a tumblr prompt.

Jyn wakes with a start to the feel of Cassian’s cool, cool palm against her forehead.

He frowns, and takes his hand away far too soon.

“You have a fever,” he says, the words clipped, his jaw clenched. “It’s very high.”

Jyn struggles to sit up so she can protest his diagnosis – because she isn’t sick; she can’t be sick, there isn’t time – but he’s quicker than she is. No sooner does she get herself halfway propped up against the pillows than he’s at her side, easing her back down again.

“Stop it,” she mumbles. “I’m okay.” But in all her moving around the blankets have fallen to her waist and now her teeth are chattering, belying her claim.

“I won’t stop,” Cassian replies curtly. “And no, you are not okay.”

He sits down beside her on the narrow bed, the bony crest of his hip pressing up against her side.

“Don’t you have someplace you need to be?” she asks. Because he must. A glance at the clock tells her he’s been back from his mission less than two hours. Draven must be chomping at the bit to get him into the debriefing room.

“I do,” Cassian agrees. He takes her hand in his, and she shivers at the sensation of his too-cool fingers interlacing with hers. “It’s right here.”

Jyn doesn’t have the strength to argue the point further, and she groans miserably in spite of herself.

“Oh, Jyn.” Cassian stretches out on the bed and wraps his arms around her. Only when she buries her face in his neck does she feel his body begin to relax.

He chuckles softly. “I’ll admit this is not the post-mission reunion I’d hoped for,” he murmurs, tucking an errant lock of her hair behind her ear. “But I’m here.”

Jyn mumbles something incoherent in response and is asleep again in seconds.

When she wakes in the morning he is gone, the faint but unmistakeable scent of his soap still lingering on her pillow.

 


	24. Don't Walk Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In response to a 5-sentence fic prompt from sorcie77: "Did you really think that after Scarif I was just going to walk away?” This is the first bit of fic I've written in about 3 months, ack.

_“Did you really think that after Scarif I was just going to walk away?”_

Jyn keeps her eyes on the floor as he asks the question, his words clipped and precise, the unspoken anger in his voice bubbling just below the surface.  

“Did you?” Cassian demands again when she doesn’t answer. Out of her peripheral vision Jyn sees him cross over to her in two long strides. The feel of his calloused fingertips against her skin when he touches her, when he roughly tilts her chin up so she has to look at him, sends an unexpected shiver of anticipation right down her spine.

She can’t get the words out when he’s looking at her like this, glaring at her like this – but somehow, she finds it in her to nod, to tell him  _yes,_ that’s exactly what she thought would happen.

Once they were rescued and safe, she assumed he’d be as good as gone.

Cassian grits his teeth, clenches his jaw. “That’s not how this works,” he murmurs, his voice tight. He shakes his head. “Not with you.”

Jyn doesn’t know if she has it in her to believe him.  Not after everything she’s been through and the life she’s led. But as he continues to look at her, the fire she sees in his eyes almost makes her want to try.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to say hello to me on tumblr I'm there as jeeno2.


End file.
